Chapter Twenty-Three
Esme
My heart picked up its rhythm, even though I didn’t want it to.
“You know nothing has changed in your heart. I’m still the asshole you chose to care about.” His lips moved down my jaw and to my neck.
My body responded to his touch, but I didn’t let it show.
He knew anyway, though…how could he not, after all the times we’ve been together?
“I don’t even know who you are!” My voice was hoarse. I really hated myself right now.
“I’m yours.”
I started crying.
There was no stopping the outburst of tears that flooded my eyes and the tremors that shook my body. All of the emotions were too much, and I couldn’t hold it together.
His face pulled back from my skin, and his hands cradled my cheeks, making me look into his eyes.
“I’m not capable of love; that part of me died a long time ago.”
“Dorian, please.” I didn’t know if I was pleading for him to love me or for him not to tell me anymore. I wanted both and neither at the same time.
“You’re beautiful.” He leaned in and kissed the tears that were streaming down my face, which of course only made me cry more.
When his hand let go of mine to curl around my waist, I didn’t put up a fight. I had none in me right now. Too many emotions had been brought to the surface, and I was incapable of doing anything until they ran their course.
Dorian held me on the bed while I let it all out and spoke to me about himself—words I’d yearned for but never thought I’d hear.
He told me of his power to manipulate light, using it to travel even great distances in an instant. Then he told me about being immortal. He never said how he was immortal, if that was a gift or not.
A man that was pure evil—as I’d come to think of the villain of Seahill—would not hold a woman and let her cry until she had nothing left in her but to close her eyes and let the silence of sleep welcome her.
Dorian was gone when I woke up to the sound of my alarm.
I should have called out, but I didn’t.
I should have avoided Dorian, but I didn’t.
My mind was in a complete state of confusion. I was in love with him, and we both knew it. He said he wasn’t capable of love, but his actions were speaking differently, which made everything even more muddled.
Dorian kissed me once in front of everyone during our shift, but I’d managed to leave once it was done, and instead of going home, I headed toward headquarters.
I got a block down the street when I stopped and stared at the stars above.
They had all hid the truth from me.
They were my friends—family, even—and they didn’t warn me about Dorian. They didn’t know I was with him, but they could have said something, and they didn’t.
Instead of heading to headquarters to demand answers, I walked the few blocks over to Grand Bay Park. I sat on the wood bench and looked out at the water, so calm it was like glass.
“I’m sorry.”
I should have known he would come.
“I don’t know what to feel right now.” It was as honest as I could get, and there was no use speaking anything but the truth to him anyway. My head turned to see Phillip all bundled up with a sad look on his face.
